Monday's debut of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall kicks off a week of celebrations and fundraisers and leads to the Sunday dedication, where President Obama will speak.

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"This is awesome, this is awesome, and he looks so strong standing there," Kwanzaa Nivens, 36, of Washington said through tears as she stood at the base of the 30-foot-tall granite statue of King on the National Mall.

The memorial, on 4 acres overlooking the Tidal Basin, will be dedicated Sunday. It opened to the public for the first time Monday.

Nivens waited in line 90 minutes and was one of the first to be let onto the memorial site. The Internal Revenue Service employee had the day off and decided to see the $120 million creation that has been at least 15 years in the making. Excerpts from King's speeches are inscribed on the walls on either side of the statue.

"It's extremely important because not that long ago, Dr. King was here on the Lincoln Memorial fighting for equality," said Nivens, who is black. "To see his statue here and a memorial for him here is overwhelming, so overwhelming."

USA TODAY/Gallup Poll

Seventy percent of Americans say they are very or somewhat interested in visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The breakdown by race:

Monday's debut kicks off a week of black-tie, white-tie and informal events all geared toward raising money for and drawing attention to the memorial and Sunday's dedication. During that event, President Obama will bury a time capsule that will include items from him, the memorial foundation and the King family, said Harry Johnson, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Foundation.

The dedication will take place on the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, during which King delivered his seminal "I Have a Dream" speech. The week will bring together civil rights luminaries, including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the last surviving organizer of the March on Washington; Joseph Lowery, who helped launch the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and former United Nations ambassador and King confidante Andrew Young.

Johnson, during an interview Monday at the site, said the memorial is for all Americans, as was King's message.

By Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

Journalists tour the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial three hours before the general public was given access to the newest memorial on the National Mall on Monday.

"Why you don't see a lot of race … is because we hope that in the next 100 years, we hope that in the next 50 or 20 years, that won't be important," Johnson said. "It's important that you have food in your belly, that you have clothes on your back, that you have education. "

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds that seven in 10 Americans are very or somewhat interested in visiting the memorial.

Civil Rights Movement

Yet there's a gap between races: 68% of black Americans are very interested, compared with 22% of whites.

Monday's crowd was racially diverse. Joe Salerno, a white information technology specialist who lives in Bethesda, Md., has been showing his 7-year-old son, Joey, tapes of King's "I Have a Dream" speech in preparation for bringing him to the memorial. Joey clung to his father's leg.

"He's trying to take it all in," said Salerno, 47.

By Garrett Hubbard, USA TODAY

Quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. are engraved at the memorial dedicated to him on the National Mall.

Dudley Sims, a black American, got choked up when he tried to explain what he was feeling. The Tampa native and retired State Department diplomat said he has seen his share of discrimination — he even saw his father's barn in Alabama burned — and said it filled him emotionally to see the memorial finally built. Sims came to the site with his wife and five grandchildren.

"He said that one day people would realize the importance of what he was doing," said Sims, 73, of Silver Spring, Md., as his voice broke.

"The dream has come true. The realization of what this man spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, this is the culmination of a dream that I in my lifetime never thought I'd see," Sims said.

Johnson said the foundation has raised $115 million of the memorial's $120 million price tag. That does not include fundraisers scheduled for this week.

"We'll get there," he said. "I just have the faith of a mustard seed that we'll get there."

Master sculptor Lei Yixin of Changsha, China, who created the King statue, attended the debut.

Speaking through a translator, he said, "Martin Luther King is not only a hero of Americans, he also is a hero of the world, and he pursued the universal dream of the people of the world."

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